1. Field
The present disclosure relates to computer-generated scene data and, more specifically, to computer-generated scene data using directed acyclic graphs.
2. Related Art
A computer-generated animation is typically created by rendering a sequence of images, with each image depicting a computer-generated scene composed of one or more computer-generated assets (e.g., a character, a group of characters, an environment, an effect, or a lighting rig). Frequently, the computer-generated images illustrate different scenes containing the same assets. For example, a scene may depict a male character during daytime hours, and a different scene may depict the same character during nighttime hours. In this example, the character may be clean-shaven during daytime hours, but may have stubble or other differences in appearance during nighttime hours.
Traditional techniques for rendering images require managing various implementations of assets when the assets have different characteristics in different scenes. However, maintaining numerous separate versions of an asset presents challenges. One particularly challenging aspect of maintaining separate versions of an asset is the difficulty in applying the same change across some or all versions of the asset.
Referring back to the example above, two versions of the same character are traditionally maintained: a first asset representing the character as clean-shaven for use in scenes depicting daytime hours and a second asset representing the character as having stubble for use in scenes depicting nighttime hours. A modification to the character during animation production may require that a change be applied to all versions of the character. As an example, production may require changes in the nose and chin structure of the character. Implementing this same change to both character assets is a time-consuming and computer-intensive task.
It is therefore desirable to use a technique for sharing digital content in a manner that reduces the need for maintaining multiple independent versions of an asset.